Marco Fagiolo, University of Rome – Tor Vergata

The codicological investigation and restoration of the manuscript INV.1093 in the Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale "Giuseppe Tucci" in Rome

The Persian manuscript INV.1093, one of a small but significant collection of codices forming the nucleus of the materials held by the Museo Nazionale d’Arte Orientale “Giuseppe Tucci” in Rome, preserves a copy (unfortunately defective) of the Diwan of Mīrzā Abdul-Qādir Bēdil (1642–1720) – the only copy, in fact, found on Italian soil.

In connection with its restoration, the first step was to map both the geographical and the cultural environment in which the author of the text lived and worked.

A codicological study revealed the biding to be of a type almost unknown in Europe, but with features similar to bindings found in areas of Central Asia, in particular Uzbek, which since the 18th century has distanced itself from the better known book production of Persia.

Attention was focused on the decoration, which was stamped on both front and back covers. A search of the literature on Islamic manuscripts and printed books conducted both in Italy and in Paris at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France resulted in the identification of a workshop in the city of Bukhara, run over a period of about 75 years by a father, who was a bookbinder, and his son, a copyist.

Given the importance of the manuscript both codicologically and textually, a detailed description of the state of conservation was prepared, including a rich photographic and graphical representation of the manuscript, where areas of more serious damage were highlighted.

Among the features identified during the preparation of this description were the presence of older repairs, later divided chronologically, and the identification of various species of insects which had attacked parts of the volume.

From these observations the necessary information was obtained to be able to reconstruct, in part, the ‘life story’ of the volume, identifying, in particular, the overlapping programmes of alteration and restoration carried out at different times. It was necessary also to conduct diagnostic tests to determine the constituent materials of the manuscript. Among others, tests were carried out to determine the solubility of the inks and graphic media, pH measurements and analysis of the writing medium with reagents and FTIR analysis, analysis of the inks by comparing the techniques XRF, Raman and Multispectral Imaging, and for the binding Infrared Thermography (IRT) and an optical microscope were used, in addition to Raman and XRF.

Owing to the loss of functionality, it was decided to disassemble the volume, after which the boards were cleaned, the flyleaves mended, the bookblock resewn and new headbands added. Finally conservation box was prepared to protect the volume. This procedure allowed the restoration of the functionality and readability of the volume in a way which was supported by the initial research into similar binding structures.

In the course of the intervention, however, it was found that protein-based adhesives had been used, which is not normal practice in Islamic bookbinding. Traditional methods for removing these adhesives were not sufficient, and so other approaches had to be found , such as solutions and semi-rigid gel of gellan with the addition of nanodiamonds. These treatments are described in the final section of the paper, and compared with the treatments are normally used for removing residual protein adhesives.